Happy Birthday to Me!

So, Saturday, I had a birthday party with a few friends and a couple of ex-clients. I was a little terrified because someone wanted to see what a party thrown by their wedding planner looked like, so no pressure, right? Plus our front lawn was completely burned out (NOT my fault, but I’ve been told that it will get re-sodded in April) and that’s where the party was going to be. Our living room isn’t big enough, sadly, nor does it have the right amount of seating space. I could go into the whole, well we had to get a particular couch and face it a particular way because the plugs are on a certain side of the wall and we can’t get one of those wrap around couches because of where the windows are, but, oh, look, you’re asleep already!

Diane Nozik, who is also an ex-client of mine, now works for a wine-tasting company, and she came down and did a wine tasting for all my guests. Good wines. A little too good, actually, because I’m still hung over. Completely awesome riesling, which I bought a couple of bottles of to send to business folks. I can guarantee the whites, and the merlot was good. Her website is www.mylittlewinebusiness.com. She and her husband are also the couple on my car and on my homepage.

So, anyway, back to the party. My husband offered to cook, and he really wanted to make sushi, and who’s going to turn down homemade sushi? So, the menu was salmon-based sushi and sashimi, burgers, chips and spinach dip (my favorite), lots of wine, and margaritas, made by my friend’s husband (he uses a mix, too, but he makes it better than I ever could). Cake was from Holly’s Cakes and Pastries, which, along with being really affordable at $2 a slice, is seriously the best cake in the world. For decorations, I used lots of candles and threw some tiki torches up on the lawn. Using $30 Monster cables I plugged my ipod into our massive television (you can also use them for stereo systems, but the TV was handier – just plug and play) and turned the volume up. And here’s the secret: We had some curtains from ikea up in the living room – white with a green floral pattern – that didn’t match anything. But they’re huge. I had bought some throwaway table covers for the party, but as I was taking down the curtains and replacing them with some white ones that we had, I got to thinking – why not use the curtains as tablecloth covers? They’re certainly big enough, and it’s a nicer pattern than white plastic. My friend Dee Dee, taking the pattern in consideration, called it “Pulling a Von Trapp”. Sometimes you have to use whatever resources are available, baby.

Oh, and of course I have to give a shout-out to Adesso Albums – I wanted to do a Polaroid album for the party and ordered it directly from the company. When they found out that it wouldn’t get there until Monday, they tried to ship it to me 3 different ways so it would get to me by the day of the party, and kept me updated the whole way. Now THAT’S customer service! They had these albums at the last wedding I did and used them as guest sign-in books. Sort of an interactive way for your guests to participate.